Shocking increase in Iran causes global executions to hit record high in 2025
The UK-based human rights advocacy organization counted at least 2,707 executions worldwide in 2025. Of those cases, 2,159 cases were reported in Iran, more than double the number in 2024, according to Amnesty International (AI).
Protest against executions in Iran in New York.
The shocking increase in the number of executions in Iran, which carried out the death penalty on more than 2,150 people, brought executions in 2025 worldwide to a record high since 1981. This was revealed in Amnesty International's annual report released Monday.
The U.K.-based human rights advocacy organization counted at least 2,707 executions worldwide in 2025. Of those cases, 2,159 cases were reported in Iran, more than double that in 2024, according to Amnesty International (AI).
However, this data "does not include the thousands of executions" that AI believes were carried out in China, the country that applies the death penalty the most, due to the "state secrecy" that covers these figures.
According to the NGO, the number of executions in 2025 was more than two-thirds higher than that recorded in 2024.
"Although executions increased, the countries that carried them out remained an isolated minority. Saudi Arabia, North Korea, China, Egypt, the United States, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Vietnam and Yemen are the same 10 countries that were known to have carried out executions every year in the past five years and had shown a systematic disregard for safeguards established under international human rights law and standards," the organization detailed.
Both AI and other human rights groups have noted that Iran is again stepping up its use of the death penalty in 2026, in the wake of the January protests and the war against Israel and the United States, on charges related to the protests.
"Highest number recorded since 1981"
Elsewhere in the world, Saudi Arabia executed 356 people; Yemen at least 51; the United States 47; Egypt 23; and Somalia, Singapore and Kuwait, 17 each. In all, 17 countries carried out executions.
The organization noted that China's "state secrecy" policy in its use of the death penalty "is indicative of an intentional use of the death penalty to send a message that the state will not tolerate any threat to its public security and stability."
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